Electronic article surveillance systems have employed either reusable or disposable electronic article surveillance labels to protect goods from pilferage. The reusable labels normally placed on the goods at the commercial establishment by a clerk and are removed from the goods by the clerk with a special tool before the customer exits the store. The label is then reused by having the clerk place the label on another article. The disposable labels are generally attached to the packaging by adhesive. These labels are formed in a line on a liner or backing which acts as a carrier for the labels which have a pressure sensitive adhesive. The liner is then wound onto a core to form a roll which is shipped to the commercial establishment. The roll of labels is loaded into a dispenser which detaches individual labels from the roll that are applied to the goods that are to be protected by the electronic article surveillance system. Numerous retail chains and manufacturers desire to facilitate the protection of their goods by source tagging, that is, where the task of protecting the goods with electronic article surveillance labels is performed during manufacture and packaging of the goods rather than at the retail level.
The current method of applying electronic article surveillance labels by stripping them from the liner and applying them to the goods with a dispenser limits the application speed. The roll format also requires rethreading of the dispenser when a new roll is installed which further decreases the overall throughput. In addition, the liner and necessary dead space between the labels in the rolls increases the space required for storing a given label count at the manufacturing facility. The source tagging environment requires a label system that facilitates higher application speeds than available with current application systems and reduces the amount of plant floor requirements for storing the labels.